Buick Rendezvous Overheating

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Please send us an email as soon as you can with the following information: name and Edmunds username, contact information (phone and address), the last 8 digits of your VIN and current mileage, and the name of your involved dealership.

I apologize that there have been so many frustrations lately, and appreciate your continued willingness to work with us towards resolving these concerns. All the best, Sarah GM Customer Service

This is all getting to be pretty bad as no one listens!? All Rendezvous overheat! I bought a 2002 Rendezvous knowing full well that I could fix the overheating problem! I got a good deal on the SUV and bought it knowing it was an easy repair! The previous owner spent a bundle on new head-gaskets and still the overheating problem did not leave! I purchased it knowing full well what the problem "was" ! I did an inspection on the cavity (engine compartment) The engine sits quite high in there and the heat of the engine has no escape from the compartment. It&#146;s closed off and the engine sits in it&#146;s own heat getting hotter and hotter destroying gaskets and all other heat related injuries ! The inspection showed trails where the heat did escape around the upper rubber seal at two ends over the engine compartment.. Those very small openings were the only means of heat escape, but not nearly enough! The heat there was so intense it started bubbling and blistering the paint on the hood! That was all the information I needed to be confident in the purchase of this 2002 Buick Rendezvous! After the purchase I cut the rubber seal down away from the hood at least one inch by two feet from center I was also careful to not remove all of it as it is a guard for rain water. The lower section of the rubber guard takes care of that. For a test to be sure I sprayed water over the windshield and not a drop spilled onto the engine .. Well it&#146;s been two years and not one heating problem since I have photos on the work done if you like

Sound fine but back in the 60's it worked and I still have niot had a drop of water in the ebgine! When you cit the rubber sown there is still an inch for water to drain off .. More below............................................................... This is all getting to be pretty bad when no one listens!? All Buick Rendezvous overheat! It&#146;s a badly designed system with no upper engine compartment ventilation! It&#146;s one thing to save on mileage with a hot engine but another when it&#146;s so hot it burns out all gaskets and seals everywhere! Counter productive to say to least! People are spending tons of money on repairs that are not necessary! I bought a 2002 Rendezvous knowing full well that I could fix the overheating problem! I got a good deal on the SUV and bought it knowing it was an easy repair! The previous owner spent a bundle on new head-gaskets and still the overheating problem did not leave! I purchased it knowing full well what the problem "was" ! I did an inspection on the (engine compartment) The engine sits quite high in there and the heat of the engine has no escape from the compartment. It&#146;s closed off and the engine sits in it&#146;s own heat getting hotter and hotter destroying gaskets and all other heat related injuries ! The cooling fans direct the incoming air to the bottom and out below the problem! My inspection shows trails where the heat did escape around the upper rubber seal at two ends over the engine compartment.. Those very small openings were the only means of heat escape, but not nearly enough! The heat there was so intense it started bubbling and blistering the paint on the hood! That was all the information I needed to be confident in the purchase of this 2002 Buick Rendezvous! After the purchase I cut the rubber seal down away from the hood at least one inch by two feet from center NOTE! I was also careful not to remove the guard area for rain water. The lower section of the rubber guard takes care of that. For a test to be sure I sprayed water over the windshield and not a drop spilled onto the engine .. Well it&#146;s been two years and not one over-heating problem since I have photos on the work done if you like

This is all getting to be pretty bad when no one listens!? All Buick Rendezvous overheat! It&#146;s a badly designed system with no upper engine compartment ventilation! It&#146;s one thing to save on mileage with a hot engine but another when it&#146;s so hot it burns out all gaskets and seals everywhere! Counter productive to say to least! People are spending tons of money on repairs that are not necessary! I bought a 2002 Rendezvous knowing full well that I could fix the overheating problem! I got a good deal on the SUV and bought it knowing it was an easy repair! The previous owner spent a bundle on new head-gaskets and still the overheating problem did not leave! I purchased it knowing full well what the problem "was" ! I did an inspection on the (engine compartment) The engine sits quite high in there and the heat of the engine has no escape from the compartment. It&#146;s closed off and the engine sits in it&#146;s own heat getting hotter and hotter destroying gaskets and all other heat related injuries ! The cooling fans direct the incoming air to the bottom and out below the problem! My inspection shows trails where the heat did escape around the upper rubber seal at two ends over the engine compartment.. Those very small openings were the only means of heat escape, but not nearly enough! The heat there was so intense it started bubbling and blistering the paint on the hood! That was all the information I needed to be confident in the purchase of this 2002 Buick Rendezvous! After the purchase I cut the rubber seal down away from the hood at least one inch by two feet from center NOTE! I was also careful not to remove the guard area for rain water. The lower section of the rubber guard takes care of that. For a test to be sure I sprayed water over the windshield and not a drop spilled onto the engine .. Well it&#146;s been two years and not one over-heating problem since I have photos on the work done if you like

Sarah, I just sent an email to your gmail account. All the information requested is there. I also contacted the Service Writer at the dealership to advise him you may be calling. Please follow up as soon as possible. Thank you.

Please send the pictures of what you did. I am currently having the exact same issues. My rendevouz started overheating. When I went to the engine, I could not feel heat on the engine and the radiator cap was still cool. Please let me know how you solved your problem!!!! Thanks!

Thank you! That email will be forwarded into our database, and you should hear back from Christina, a fellow Customer Service Representative who handles a majority of the emails from Edmunds. She will set up your Service Request and advise you as to the next step in the process.

I received an email from Christina with a case number. She advised that a local District Specialist will be calling me in 2-3 business days. Bottom line though is, will they contact me before my car is ready?

I also had a HUGE overheating issue. Your post was EXTREMELY helpful and informative. My boyfriends excellent at working on cars but he was stumped on this one took over two weeks to get it to run consistant. Wish we had read your post SOONER. He picked up a thermo controled electric fan kick on kit and set it for 185 then he hooked it to the air conditioner fan by pulling out the fan selenoid fuse to number 2 which is the ac secondary fan then Ihe also drilled a 2mm hole in the thermostat(mechanics will tell you not to do this but it worked great for me) that way theres no air pockets behind the thermostat delaying it from openeing and thus creating an air pocket. Its ran cooler then ever and CONSISTANT which was a huge issue. We would love to see those pictures would you please send them. Thanks, Melissa. My emails jewelry1232001@yahoo.com

" 2mm hole in the thermostat", "removing factory rubbers from the hood seal", etc. etc. ????? Like OMG, what other butcher jobs are people doing to their vehicle as well?

Instead of removing water seal rubbers, drilling holes (when certified mechanics tell you not to do it), etc. etc, have you ever asked yourself why there's air bubbles in the system? If wondering, I have a 2003 RDV with "pure factory" hood rubber and pure factory themostat and my vehicle's TEMP is consistant. And, I know other RDV's that have consistant temps as well.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop telling others to "butcher" their vehicle. Especially when other certified auto mechanics are also saying its a bad idea as well. It's always best to find the root cause of the problem and fix it properly. For example, if its a small leak within its intake gasket, get its intake gasket replaced - with an ew / proper gasket material. Butchering a vehicle's original design isn't the answer. Especially in the long run...

You better get your information straght! I told absolutely no one to drill a hole in a thermostat! However, I did show them how to cure the problem with air circulation by removeing a partial half of the upper guard at the hood.. The problem was the compartment design, not allowing the engine to breath (At all!) The fan air below simply directs all the air under the engine while top section is sufficating. ( That is the correct diagnosis !) I have been around engines all my life and my Buick Rendevouz is running perfectky cool from this correction.. Most ALL Buick Rendexouz's suffer fron this circulation error,, I can prove that in a court of law! .... Either one corrects the problem or burns up head haskets, seals, or complete engine! Worse ! A FIRE! Keep your mouth and accusations out of my corrections! I sent my instructions the GM......

Look at my above post. Why do you continue do you tell others to remove / modify rubber seals, why does that other person (Melissa) tell others to drill holes in thermostats? Then, you tell others to shut their mouths?

OMG people.... I hope you don't tell others to stick their fingers in electrical outlets and try to explain its safe as well? Will that stick up in a court of law??? You know.... There's all sorts of garbage on the internet. Both of your posts is perfect examples.... Example of people butchering a factory design without looking at the root cause of the problem.

Talk about your skating style, you still haven't explained why other 2002 intake gaskets on 3.4L engines in other GM vehicles from mini-vans to sedans blow their head gaskets as well. Are those other vehicle hood compartment designed improperly as well?

BTW: My 2003 RDV has original factory specs with original rubber hood seal and its temp needle is steady as solid pole. Why is my vehicle different than yours - yet both have same engine compartment? Sounds like something is seriously wrong with your 2002 engine. Perhaps leaky intake gasket????

We welcome all points of view on our forums. All we ask is that you keep to the topic - it's okay to disagree, but we can do without name-calling or finger-pointing. Not to mention a simple factual analysis carries a lot more weight with more people than an ad hominem attack does.

I agree. One can remove the hood rubbers from their own vehicle or drill holes in thermostats if they want. They own their own vehicle and if they want, they can even put their own bullet into their own vehicle. I hope others reading this thread will realize that removing hood rubbers WILL allow water and ice into the engine area. Hot engine, wiring + water = very bad situation. I also want to know why a 2003 RDV (my vehicle) is at factory design and doesn't run hot. Its temp needle is smooth, steady, and doesn't vary. Yet, a 2002 RDV has over heating problems. Removing / cutting hood rubbers is the reactive action to recover from something wrong with it. It isn't the solution to solve the "root cause" of the problem. Telling others to remove hood rubbers = very bad idea. Especially when this idea is NOT promoted by GM ..

Help! I don't know what to do anymore. I have a 2003 model. I have replaced my intake several times, new water pump, new hoses, new transmission and it is still over heating!!!!!! I have spent so much money this past week on it. I am at a lost and need help. I am at my wits end with this car but I have it. I don't have the money to buy another one or continue to put money into this one. What do I need to do to stop it from over heating now? If there is a class action against this car who do I call? HELP!

The problem will not go away,, I have a 2002, same problem,, The engine compartment is a bad design trapping heat in the upper area ,, I cut the rubber guard near the windshiled 1 inch by 2 feet , leaving 1 inch below for water run off,.. My egine is now cool and stays cool ! It's just a matter of poor air circulation ,, GM has my statments... I do have photos.. Bud!

The problem with the comment on an earlier post about these repairs not being GM recommended is that they aren't recommending anything except spend money. I have had to replace manifold and head gaskets on an AZTEC and a Rendezous both with 50-60K. I never had these problems with my Honda/Toyota products and my driving habits have not changed.

I thought you needed help on overheting problem !? ,, Mine is fixed ! The stuff you talked about was done previous to my purchase of the Buick R.. Thay guy did not know anything about poor air circulation so I bought it knoing I could cure the problem ...... NOW! Do you really have a problem or are you from GM sniffing around.. I already sent them my diagnosis which is correct! My Buick R,, has run cool now for two years,,,,,,,,,,,,

I am not sure where to start. I purchased my vehicle in 2010 it has over 100,000 miles on it and since 09/2011 my buick has been overheating. The gauge flucuats while I drive it on the reguar streets with no rhyme or reason. I can't even attempt to drive it on the interstate or it will overheat in less then two minutes and start loosing power. I have replaced temperature gauges, hoses, radiator, and everything that could possibly make a vehicle overheat and to no avail, I still have the same issues. Even the shop that fixed my car can't explain why it is still overheating after spending thousands of dollars. They have tested the engine when it is reading HOT and the engine is not hot. I am so frustrated at the fact I would have to continue to invest money into something that doesn't seem fixable and is at this point a guessing game. This seems to be uniform from the other complaints that I have read. I am not sure that I am relieved to know I am not the only person having this problem or more frustrated seeing GMC is doing nothing about it to fix our problems. When is GMC going to accept responsibility and put out a recall to fix these poorly made vehicles and stop making the cusomers suffer. I am to the point I will NEVER purchase another GMC product, EVER!

The exact same thing happened to me the past Jan. I had to have the instrument cluster rebuilt (you can't purchase one, either old or new). The cost was about$500. Was told orginally that it would have to be pulled and sent off to be rebuilt. I would be without my car for as long as 2-3 weeks. But my mechanic found a guy 2.5 hours away who would come to my town and do it in one day. Haven't had any problems since. My mechanic did tell me before it was fixed not to drive it out of town as I would not have any warning for true overheating or busted water pump, etc. BTW, my engine was not overheating, the guage was just messed up.Good luck. I've been driving Rendezvous for 9 years. They haven't had any more problems than any other car I've ever driven.

I am having much the same issue with our 2004 rdv. Over the winter it developed an issue where the gas gauge would be all over the place and not reading accurate. When you would take it on a long drive the speedometer would not always return to 0 and would continue to climb when you accelerate until it was wrapped all the way back around to 0. Now this spring it is giving me fits where any time I pull my boat or slow down from highway speed the gauge rockets up past 1/2 way and I have seen at as high as 3/4. I have checked the cooling system and it has good clean coolant, fans seem to be working fine, water pump seems fine and thermostat must be working cause it will at times go back down leading me to believe it is allowing coolant through the system. Also when we have been driving it for a while and slow down we can hear what sounds like a bubbling sound coming from inside the dashboard area. Not sure what is causing that either.

So I am now wondering if I really have a cooling system problem at all or if the gauge is just messing up on me.

Anyone got any advice before I start to sink big money into the cooling system.

Yeah, I was thinking that too, until I opened the radiator and its full and the overflow tank has fluid in it also. So where would the air be in the system and how do I get it out?

My wife took the rdv out today and its near 80 here and she said she never had one lick of issues with it acting like it wanted to overheat. It seems extremely random and mostly when I have my boat hooked to it. Funny thing is I don't even have to actually drive it anywhere. I can hook the boat up, fire it up in the driveway and just let it sit and run and the gauge will just keep getting higher and higher. I am almost wondering if its not an electrical issue and when I hook the wiring harness to the boat up if that is somehow playing a roll in it. Whatever it is I am sure clueless as where to start.